Walter Astrada’s One-Image Bilingual Guide to Photojournalism

I continue to be struck by the commitment and creativity of the Foundry faculty in teaching their students.

Yesterday I stumbled across one example that is definitely worth sharing. It is a diagrammatic drawing by faculty member Walter Astrada showing the elements of telling a story with images, along with the process for getting there. I captured it in the photo below:

It starts with a good-natured drawing of Adriana Zehbauskas, Walter’s oh-so-elegant co-instructor in this all-Spanish/Portugese-speaking class. On red stickers are the truly basic equipment that all photojournalists must have – watchful eyes, a notebook, a camera and a good heart.

But it shows other things are also needed – including persistence and a good pair of shoes! But wait – there’s more! The photojournalist must have curiosity, flexibility, empathy and a willingness to work hard.

Developing the story itself requires, first, an idea, but then the idea must be developed through research, contacts, and careful planning. Once into the gathering of the facts and developing of the story, you have to answer journalism’s Universal Five questions – who, what, when, where and why?

Clever, huh? I thought so. Maybe Foundry can turn this into a sticker for all photojournalists to put into their notebooks as a constant reminder! Whaddya say, Eric?

The journalism’s Universal Five questions – who, what, when, where and why? is from a friend Michael Zumstein.

It is a diagrammatic drawing of the photographer is from my self,

We did this as part of an exercise during a Training for Trainer course of the WPPhoto. The exercise was to design a class of 20 minutes were we could explain whatever we want. Michael decided to explain about captions and I decided to do about the steps of doing a photo story.

I think the combination of the two ideas and the sharing of experience is a plus.